The effects of historic gold mining on Californias environment.

In the pursuit of gold much damage was done to California's ecosystem. Traditional mining practices, such as placer mining and rocker/ cradle mining by individuals and small groups of miners in California did damage the environment in small ways, but the real damage began to occur when big groups and conglomerates started diverting rivers to dig the stream bed and using Hydraulic mining equipment. These larger operations with more capital were able to use more mechanized and expensive equipment, and the environment of California suffered more as a result.

Placer mining is searching for the gold that has been eroded from surrounding rocks by weather and washed into the water. This type of mining was nothing new to California, the Spanish and Mexicans were doing it long before the Gold Rush started. When the 49ers arrived they also searched for the same type of gold. In this method they used picks, shovels, and sluice boxes to mine the edges of creeks and rivers for gold dust and nuggets. Individual miners using this method did not last very long because the gold on the surface ran out fairly quickly. The impact the independent miners had on the environment was fairly minimal compared to what was coming next. After the surface gold was removed, the single miners gave way to corporations with a lot of capital. These groups were able to move entire rivers and creeks. They did this to expose the riverbeds so they could access more of the gold that was unreachable while it was under deep water. The diverting of water was the first major way miners changed nature to suit their needs.

Hydraulic mining was the is the use of a high pressure water hose and nozzle to literally wash the hills and banks away into sluices to trap gold and let the dirt and rocks wash away. The emergence of hydraulic mining was really a turning point in gold mining’s history. Its emergence was not coincidental either. The technology had been in use since the Roman times, but its use